Purpose & Audience
You can often learn the most about the purpose and target audience for a film by looking into it's marketing techniques. And what better way to explore the marketing than watch a movie trailer! See the video below for the original movie theater trailer for Aladdin.
TARGET AUDIENCE: The trailer begins by referencing The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, two animated Disney movies that had been recently released. Thus, we know that the advertisers want the same audience for this new film. Interestingly enough, those two movies were geared towards little girls because they centered on Disney princesses. My guess is that Aladdin was Disney's attempt to appeal equally to little boys and little girls. The trailer also focuses a lot on the genie, and one of the first lines from Aladdin is the genie saying, "Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck!" Thus, the trailer is trying to show that this movie is more than just an ancient fairytale or love story-- it's funny too! In this way, the target audience widens to include families (parents and older kids).
PURPOSE: The purpose of most narrative feature films is primarily to entertain (and to make money). Of course, with Disney, the entertainment goes beyond the movie itself. Aladdin has been merchandized like crazy-- from video games to toys to books and Disneyland attractions. This takes the entertainment well beyond the 90-minute run time, and also increases revenue in other sectors of Disney's business model.
The purpose of the film Aladdin may go deeper, though. IN PROGRESS....
TARGET AUDIENCE: The trailer begins by referencing The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, two animated Disney movies that had been recently released. Thus, we know that the advertisers want the same audience for this new film. Interestingly enough, those two movies were geared towards little girls because they centered on Disney princesses. My guess is that Aladdin was Disney's attempt to appeal equally to little boys and little girls. The trailer also focuses a lot on the genie, and one of the first lines from Aladdin is the genie saying, "Ten thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck!" Thus, the trailer is trying to show that this movie is more than just an ancient fairytale or love story-- it's funny too! In this way, the target audience widens to include families (parents and older kids).
PURPOSE: The purpose of most narrative feature films is primarily to entertain (and to make money). Of course, with Disney, the entertainment goes beyond the movie itself. Aladdin has been merchandized like crazy-- from video games to toys to books and Disneyland attractions. This takes the entertainment well beyond the 90-minute run time, and also increases revenue in other sectors of Disney's business model.
The purpose of the film Aladdin may go deeper, though. IN PROGRESS....